Comptes rendus ‒ Session extraordinaire du Conseil des ADPIC ‒ Afficher les détails de l'intervention /la déclaration

Ambassador Eui-yong Chung (Korea, Republic of)
D ORGANIZATION OF WORK
17. The representative of Canada said that the Council had already had long and intensive discussions on the issue and positions were well understood. Canada shared the concerns about the additional burden that might be placed on individual Members and for this reason was fully supportive of a system that was voluntary, facilitative, simple, low-cost, and limited to wines and spirits only. The TRIPS Agreement clearly indicated a requirement for Members to negotiate a registration system to facilitate protection of geographical indications – not to obligate them. Canada was supportive of the Chairperson's suggestion to organize the work in a two-phase approach. She would, however, have concerns regarding target dates, and thought that the Special Session should be flexible in this regard. Canada also supported Australia's suggestion for the Secretariat, along with WIPO, to prepare a summary of how Members had implemented their obligations under Article 23.4, and this would also include an indication of the definition of geographical indication that had been adopted. Canada also supported the Chairperson's proposal to prepare a list of topics for discussion or an annotated agenda to help delegations prepare for the June meeting. This should not mean that attention would not be paid to documents that had been previously tabled such as the report referred to by the EC or document IP/C/W/259.
TN/IP/M/1